Opera Scotland

Day After 2018Royal Conservatoire of Scotland

Jonathan Dove's 70-minute chamber piece was originally played in the open air. The UK premiere, by ENO, was given indoors in a revised version with chorus, and it is this staging that was used by the Conservatoire in its intimate studio theatre.

The planning was very clever. Scottish Opera's production of Dove's successful full-length Flight had just had a run over the road at the Theatre Royal. The Day After also had an excellent libretto by April de Angelis and tackled the subject of flight in a far more serious way. The classical Greek myth of Phaeton was re-interpreted to show the likely effect of the Sun's chariot coming too close to the Earth - essentially a post-nuclear holocaust. Very thought-provoking and effective, even if too short to develop the possibilities fully.

It was a sad irony that the the timing of performances clashed with a more real freak of the weather. The 'Beast from the East' as the media quickly dubbed it; was an unseasonable and extremely vicious snowstorm that blanketed the country for several days from Wednesday, 28 February. Travel was very restricted, and schools and many workplaces were closed. Scottish Opera, in Edinburgh to present Flight were forced to cancel the first performance on Thursday, and could only perform on Saturday with piano, as the orchestra were marooned in Glasgow. The Conservatoire opening, also on the Saturday, was affected the other way, in that it was not possible to travel to Glasgow from the east. The performance went ahead, even with a restricted audience, and was much admired.